How to Craft the Perfect USP

Differentiate Your Business in the Marketplace

with a strong and memorable Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

A USP highlights what separates your business from competitors, why your business deserves customer trust and why customers should invest their time and money on your products and services.

“Differentiation is one of the most important strategic and tactical activities in which companies must constantly engage.”

Theodore Levitt – Author and Professor, Harvard Business School

LEARN HOW YOU CAN CRAFT THE PERFECT UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

HOW TO MAKE CRAFT THE PERFECT USP

A lesson in writing effective Unique Selling Propositions

Appeal to your Target Customer

Appeal to your Target Customer

Keep it Simple & Straightforward

Highlight your Differences

Incorporate your Company Culture

Get Personal & Creative

APPEAL TO YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER

APPEAL TO YOUR TARGET CUSTOMER

In order to craft the perfect USP, you need to learn about your target customer. Find out what is important to them and why they seek out your brand to provide what they need. You can learn about your customer demographics easily from your website analytics platform. Find out information like age, gender, interests, location and more.

A prime example of a brand targeting a specific audience is the manly man’s clothing provider, Duluth Trading Co. They pinpoint issues that men have had with clothing, like overheated underwear (pictured right), and identify how their products solve this problem. Not only do their ads get your attention with a unique style and tongue-in-cheek delivery, but they appeal directly to their audience of men who need comfortable work clothes.

How to Appeal to your Target Customer:

Gather Data About Your Audience Check your website analytics for the most prevalent audience demographics to see who is coming to your website, what type of customer buys the most products from you and where you can reach them to deliver your message.

Create Buyer Personas Create profiles of your most loyal customers to identify what drives them to do business with you, how you can appeal to their interests and how to attract new customers like them.

Develop Marketing Materials Use this targeted information to create marketing materials that clearly identify the needs and wants of your target audience while emphasizing the benefits of using your products and services. Be sure to target one specific need per ad like Duluth Trading Co., as putting too much information in will dilute your overall message and lower conversions.

KEEP IT SIMPLE & STRAIGHTFORWARD

KEEP IT SIMPLE & STRAIGHTFORWARD

Everyone wants to simplify their life. This becomes even more important when customers search for a solution to their problems. Make it easy for customers to identify if your products or services are the right fit. Explain upfront how your products or services can help customers achieve their goals and solve their problems in the simplest way possible.

How to Simplify your USP:

Narrow It Down What exactly do your customers want? To know this, you must first get into their head. Know what motivates their buying decisions and what ties them to the use of your products or services. Send out surveys, interview VIP customers or use website analytics and data patterns over time to uncover their interests, favorite products, other sites they like to visit and more. Condense this information into the most meaningful and differentiating factors, then use them as the basis of your marketing materials.

Construct your USP to Answer the Following Questions: If customers use your products or services:

How does your business improve the lives of its customers?

What does your business do so well that others can’t compete?

What do your customers truly want from your business?

Be Sure to Address Two Things: Customer Needs & Business Strengths Combine what your customers want and the unique offering(s) of your business in one statement. For example, customers of The UPS Store love them for their conveniently located service centers. Strengths of The UPS Store include that they offer many different business services. They brought these two elements together to say:

“The UPS Store network is the world’s largest franchisor of retail shipping, postal, printing and business service centers. Today, there are more than 5,000 independently owned The UPS Store locations in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada.”

HIGHLIGHT YOUR DIFFERENCES

HIGHLIGHT YOUR DIFFERENCES

After you’ve taken the time to learn more about your customers and narrow down to which products and/or service benefits mean the most to them, be sure to apply this gained insight to your marketing strategy.

Avoid highlighting your benefits using vague or meaningless terms, like being the best or cheapest alternative. Explain where specific differences exist between your business and competitors, then then explain how these differences make you uniquely awesome. Embrace your differentiators and highlight them as the main reason why people should support your business over another.

Help content rank on search engines for terms related to your unique features with a keyword strategy.

Develop marketing materials that help you capitalize on unique selling factors

INCORPORATE YOUR COMPANY CULTURE

INCORPORATE YOUR COMPANY CULTURE

For some businesses, their company values are just as integral to success and to customer affinity towards their brand as the products they sell. In this way, customers align themselves with the brand’s identity that is built upon shared values and how they give back to society or how they improve the lives of anyone around the globe. They inject their marketing with messaging that conveys socially-responsible values so customers feel like they’re also contributing when they make a purchase with that brand.

Socially-conscious marketing helps brands shape their identity and paves the way for businesses to connect with consumers on a deeper level.

Companies that use conscious marketing have been known to attract fans and brand advocates because of their like-minded beliefs and desire for purchases to spread goodwill and support causes.

Companies like Method cleaning products and TOMS shoes use socially-conscious marketing efforts to convey to customers what they believe is important. Method believes in cleaning products that are environmentally safe. For every pair of shoes purchased, TOMS will give a pair to a child in need in Ethiopia.

GET PERSONAL & CREATIVE

GET PERSONAL & CREATIVE

Don’t be afraid to use some personality in your marketing! Find your look, develop your voice, and go with it. You can test and request customer feedback to see if your efforts are getting the response desired and tweak accordingly. If you can authentically connect with your audience through a unique tone of your USP, as well as in look and feel of your marketing, your marketing will be more memorable and your brand will stand out from the rest.

Support your USP in Personal & Creative Ways:

Offer an Insider’s View Let customers see the inner workings of your operations with some behind-the-scenes footage. You’ll see brands initiate this on social media, with Instagram stories or simply by posting short videos and photos relating to events or during the creation of their products. Victoria’s Secret offers behind-the-scenes footage to ramp up excitement for their annual Angel’s Fashion Show.

Elicit Emotion Foster a connection with fans by appealing to their emotions. Nike stands out for promoting feelings of inclusivity and empowerment with their ads. From featuring an 81 year old first-time marathon runner to paralympians to the first athletic hijab, Nike is a champion at inspiring their brand’s fans.

Tell a Story Give your brand a personality. Develop it through effective storytelling. Imported beer brand, Dos Equis, connected with customers through “The Most Interesting Man in the World” ads where the brand developed a story line of a man who has rich life experiences in exotic locales and everyone wants to be like him. The humorous and outrageous taglines caught on, like ‘he gave his own father “the talk”’ and ‘roses stop to smell him,’ and the campaign spurred an internet meme that expanded their reach and lasted 10 years from 2006-2016. During that time, sales of Dos Equis increased 22% when sales of other imported beers in the U.S. fell 4%.

HOW TO CRAFT THE PERFECT UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

A strong Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a statement that summarizes the valuable differentiators of your brand. It highlights the uniqueness of your organization and the benefits your products or services provide. Your USP is an important cornerstone to an effective ad campaign and marketing strategy.

There are many ways to craft the perfect USP. Some ways we suggest creating the perfect USP is to appeal to the interests of your target customer, keep it simple and straightforward, embrace and highlight what makes your organization and products unique, incorporate your company culture and finally get personal and creative in the delivery of your USP. In applying these tips to the creation of your own unique selling proposition, you will be more successful in developing a brand identity that is memorable and effective.